Yesterday evening it was noted that 4 traps had been laid at the lake and that Wally’s lodge on the south side of the lake had been damaged. KROC wrote a statement about Wally the Beaver, and we wrote one in return. As far as we know, Wally has not been caught in the traps, and was spotted this morning alive. Tonight at 6:00PM EST the KROC board meets, and we hope that if you are a part of KROC that you will strongly consider attending.

Reply to KROC statement on Wally 3/5/25

To Tony Johnson General Manager and Pam Vanderburg Board Chair of KROC,

Consider this a statement of your actions regarding the presence of Wally the beaver in our environment.  As you may have noticed, we (Friends of Kingstowne Lake) have created a petition to represent the voices of people who have appreciated Wally’s presence in our ecosystem.  Our petition has currently accrued around 1400 signatures and counting on Change.org and an over-pouring amount of support from people that enjoy the Kingstowne Lake.  This support can be seen both through the number of supporters and the quality of the comments regarding both the appreciation of Wally and maintaining homeostasis with the natural environment, as well as the benefits that beavers can have on our environment.  We would highly suggest reading these comments and reading our petition.

It is important to note that while the Kingstowne Lake is a Stormwater Management Facility, that it is also an RPA (Resource Protection Area) and is part of the Dogue Creek and greater Chesapeake Watershed. RPA is a designation made by the state to sensitive parts of the environment that by law must be preserved or restored to a natural condition when disturbed.  Many of KROC’s concerns are over exaggerated and their wildlife expert uses strange wording regarding their efforts (such as “dispatch” and “humanely remove”) to soften their intention to kill Wally. It is important to note when reading their statement, that only injured and dead/dying beavers can be removed from the property legally-and that they refer to this as humane. While our relationship with KROC has been generally positive for the past few years, they have otherwise been disinterested in the effects of algae blooms and runoff/pollution on the lake.

Regarding the 60 some trees that were analyzed by the trappers, we would like to know how many of those trees exceeded a diameter of 5 inches (the standard distinction for what is considered a tree, separating them from saplings) and how many of those trees were considered healthy and not dead or dying. We would also like firm examples representing the severity of Wally’s impact on the infrastructure of the Storm Water Management facility and why it would be infeasible to explore other options aside from trapping the beaver. Wally is an adolescent beaver who was first spotted last September, which is also important to note when regarding their accounted 60 damaged or utilized trees over the span of 6 months.  Wally seems to be without a mate at this time. We are not naive to the fact that a mate could change the beaver’s behavior nor to the fact that he could be eaten by a coyote or die otherwise. Our observations have indicated that Wally’s main resource of use is dead and dying trees as well as saplings, which helps manage the safety and integrities of the property and ecosystem that the property resides within.

We have walked around the lake with Tony Johnson of KROC, offering solutions that we have discussed with representatives of various places across the county that coexist with beavers (namely- Lake Barcroft, a private residential community; and Huntley Meadows, a county park).  Fairfax County’s Wildlife department suggests that there are various means of controlling flooding, and we would like to make mention that not only were 4 traps set to murder this beaver, but his/her lodge was damaged by the trappers.

 KROC is truly missing the forest for the trees here, and we have offered to work with a Beaver Coexistence Group as well as other local groups to wrap healthy/mature trees that Wally may target in galvanized steel wire. We are also willing to monitor Wally’s activity along with KROC so that if a time came where Wally was sincerely a detriment to the environment that a more grounded decision could be made. We are also open to discussing methods of preventing flooding given specific examples of infrastructural damage. Based on our petition, we have found that KROC’s decision to trap and kill Wally is not representative of its constituents or their full range of views and considerations.  

We are asking for a public hearing regarding coexistence with Wally.

We would also like to be made aware of the credentials of your trapper that is referred to as a Wildlife Expert, for the sake of proper reference.